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Porridge is off! or is it?

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Pine Marten

Pine Marten

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Another query which I feel I should know the answer to, but feeling undecided here goes anyway…

The other day I decided to test 1 hour after breakfast (which I hadn’t done for ages), and was surprised that my porridge & coffee spiked at 10.6! After 2 hours it was down to 5.0 (before breakfast was 5.5). The next day I had fried egg, mushrooms, tomatoes, 1 toasted Burgen slice & coffee, and it was only 6.9 one hour after (before breakfast it was again 5.5).

Question is: should I give up porridge, which I like, in favour of other breakfasts? I had always thought that it was ok for me..?
 
A good rule of thumb is anything over 7 for more than half an hour or so causes damage.

That's quite a big spike from your porridge - although your 2 hour postprandial is good, that's probably a good hour and a half where your blood sugar is high. Sounds like maybe your initial insulin response isn't great but it catches up in the end.

With your other breakfast, meter error means that your blood sugar might not actually have moved - both those readings could easily be 'really' around the 6 mark.

Based on this, I would suggest cutting back on the porridge.
 
I have trouble with porridge too, which is a shame because I liked it. It doesn't seem to be the oats for me, more the hot milk. I can have a cup of oats soaked in yoghurt overnight and it doesn't spike. I've never tried porridge made with water like my grandad used to make but maybe I should.

What about porridge saturdays? Bergen toast during the week and a porridge treat at the weekend? To be honest I'd do a bit more testing to be sure it wasn't a one off with the porridge before reaching a conclusion but it is a common culprit for spikes sadly :(
 
When I add dry oats to my breakfast cereal mix I have problems. Not so much the spike which is normally due to the soluble part of oats but because it gives me the runs.
I can add flakes of rye, millet, buckwheat, no problem, but oat flakes and I am sitting on the throne in the bathroom.
Strangely, I have some gluten-free oats which I use for a friend who regularly eats with us, and I have no problem with that.
 
Thank you for the replies - this morning was interesting: after testing (result, 5.5) I had a breakfast of toast, mushrooms & tomatoes and tea, then went on a brisk stroll to the bank to pay in some cheques. On return an hour later I tested again and the result was virtually the same, 5.4!

As well as the porridge thing I have been exercising some time after meals - like the old rule of not swimming straight after eating - but I gather from other threads here that exercise is best shortly after meals. D'oh! the more I learn about D the more I have to learn!

I was feeling fairly fed up and frustrated with it all yesterday, and ended up having a bit of a row with my husband about a lunch invitation we received. I am so glad I can come here and vent, or ask dumb questions, and just generally get support and good advice. Thank you! :D
 
Pine Marten said:
Thank you for the replies - this morning was interesting: after testing (result, 5.5) I had a breakfast of toast, mushrooms & tomatoes and tea, then went on a brisk stroll to the bank to pay in some cheques. On return an hour later I tested again and the result was virtually the same, 5.4!

As well as the porridge thing I have been exercising some time after meals - like the old rule of not swimming straight after eating - but I gather from other threads here that exercise is best shortly after meals. D'oh! the more I learn about D the more I have to learn!

I was feeling fairly fed up and frustrated with it all yesterday, and ended up having a bit of a row with my husband about a lunch invitation we received. I am so glad I can come here and vent, or ask dumb questions, and just generally get support and good advice. Thank you! :D
Click to expand...

Gets to me too sometimes, and I have a moment (or few hours of anger) I think we'd have to be saints to not feel annoyed by it and I'm no saint 🙂. Exercise after food certainly makes my blood sugar drop, in fact I have to under dose insulin if I'm dog walking straight after breakfast so maybe porridge would work for you with a bit of activity straight after? Hope you're enjoying the weekend 🙂
 
I thought I'd update on this.

My friend (not diabetic) uses almond milk for some things, so this morning I tried it on a sachet of Alpen. Before breakfast my reading was 5.2; 1 hour after breakfast it was 7.7 (so not bad, I thought); and after 2 hrs (and a bit - I was on the phone and forgot!) it was back to 5.3! 🙂 So Alpen seems to be better for me than porridge, and I like the taste of almond milk, it's kinda fresher than dairy milk but not watery like skimmed. I'm going to try it with porridge and see what the difference is. Don't know if I fancy it in tea or coffee though...
 
Oops - I think I've mixed my timings up, and can't now figure out what I did. I'm going to do it again tomorrow and write it down accurately....
 
Might just be the Alpen rather than the almond milk - remember, porridge is to some extent, pre-digested so it's easier for the carbs to be broken down quickly into sugar. Alpen is mostly a cross between sawdust and pot pourrit, so your body takes much longer to convert it into glucose.
 
Typicaltwo said:
(down from an HbA1c of 8 [144] to 2.4 [44] in less than two months).
Click to expand...


Hello typicaltwo. Welcome to the forum. We have quite a few members who find moderating carb intake to one degree or other very helpful.

I think your conversions are a little off on your A1c. 144 would be significantly higher than 12 (which is 108mmol/mol) and 44mmol/mol translates to around 6.2%. I'm not even sure an A1c of 2.4% is possible.

Congratulations on your reduction - whatever it was!
 
I don't think is in reply to my porridge.... a slip of the finger?
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Hello typicaltwo. Welcome to the forum. We have quite a few members who find moderating carb intake to one degree or other very helpful.

I think your conversions are a little off on your A1c. 144 would be significantly higher than 12 (which is 108mmol/mol) and 44mmol/mol translates to around 6.2%. I'm not even sure an A1c of 2.4% is possible.

Congratulations on your reduction - whatever it was!
Click to expand...

Erm... this is what I was replying to - I'm not typicaltwo :confused:
 
Pinemarten I think there is a simple answer. Mike made one of them mistake thingies!

He was obviously answering a Phantom Poster. I'd not realised before that the forum was haunted, how exciting !
 
Sorry for the confusion. The bit I quoted was from a post that seems to have been 'moderated' - but not in the normal way. And it still comes up as visible for me. I'll ask Alan what I did wrong. Sorry! 😛
 
I thought that was what happened, but in my very non-techy way I got a bit confused myself :O !
 
So pinemartin, did you notice any difference with the porridge and almond milk? I love almond milk and always have it.
 
I haven't tried it with porridge yet but I might do that tomorrow 🙂 but yes, the milk is very nice - I've got to try again with Alpen too, as I seem to have, er, buggered up the timings this morning...

I'll report back, and try to do it properly!
 
Well... I had coffee, Alpen & almond milk for breakfast and the odd thing is my readings were the same as yesterday even though I messed up the times yesterday. So today I did it properly and before breakfast: 5.2; 1 hr after: 7.7; 2 hrs after: 5.3. Pretty good, then 🙂
 
I find I'm better with oats in their raw state, ie muesli, not porridge. I also think the seeds and nuts in muesli help slow down the absorption of glucose. I have Lidl own brand Swiss Style muesli with no added sugar, tastes like Alpen at a fraction of the price. I tend to put yogurt on mine, as that seems to cause less of a spike than milk. I haven't tried almond milk, I may give it a try.
 
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